Annie Kenney. Character Sketch and article on "Prison Faces."

Pamphlet titled Annie Kenney. Character Sketch and article on "Prison Faces.", published by the Women's Social and Political Union, c1908, fifth edition, pp12.The pamphlet includes a brief biography of Annie Kenney By Frederick Pethick Lawrence and an article, 'Prison Faces', in which Annie Kenney desribes the impact of meeting women prisoners in gaol. The front cover has a photograph of Annie Kenney in a mill girls outfit. The inside front cover details the WSPU constitution and its principal committee members. The back cover lists WSPU publications and merchandise.
Annie was a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union and one of its most charismatic speakers. She and Christabel Pankhurst were the first Suffragettes to be arrested and imprisoned in October 1905 for interrupting a Liberal meeting in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Annie, born in Lancashire, was often portrayed by the WSPU as a working class 'Mill Girl'. However, although she spent a short time working in a mill factory, she came from a highly cultured family home where she was exposed to a wide range of books and broad education. In 1906 Annie was sent by the WSPU to 'rouse' London' where she addressed meetings, canvassed women and led deputations to Parliament. From 1907 she was appointed WSPU organiser in the west of England on a salary of £2 a week. From 1912, with Christabel Pankhurst in exile in Paris, Annie was given control of WSPU headquarters to ensure Christabel's policy of militancy was carried through. In 1913 Annie was found guilty of conspiracy to inflict damage to property. Sentenced to three years' imprisonment there she went on hunger strike before being repeatedly released under the terms of the Cat & Mouse Act.